Bureau of Labor Statisticshttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/bureau-of-labor-statistics
en-usTue, 26 Sep 2017 18:42:37 -0400Tue, 26 Sep 2017 18:42:37 -0400The latest news on Bureau of Labor Statistics from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6Here are the hottest industries for teens to find jobs this summerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6
Sat, 24 Jun 2017 13:48:00 -0400Business Insider
<p>Summer is here.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For teenagers, the time off from school could be an opportunity to&nbsp;earn some cash.</p>
<p>The share of teenagers that work in the summer has fallen over the years. <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2017/06/21/thinking-about-summer-jobs/">Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> show that the share of those aged 16 to 19 who worked or looked for a job in July peaked in 1978, at 71.8%.</p>
<p>It's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/an-economic-rite-of-passage-for-teenagers-is-almost-dead-2015-6">more complicated</a> than just wanting more free time:&nbsp;teens are studying for longer, some choose unpaid internships, and non-white teenagers are less likely to land summer jobs overall.&nbsp;</p>
<p>About 43% of teens were active in the job market last July.&nbsp;Most of them worked in the leisure and hospitality industry, working gigs such as&nbsp;waiting tables and housekeeping.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This chart&nbsp;from the <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/#SummerChart1">BLS</a> shows the top industries that employed teens in&nbsp;summer 2016.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/594abaa6114ab61d008b47df-1201/6-21-17-teen-jobs-cotd.png" alt="6 21 17 teen jobs COTD" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2017/06/21/thinking-about-summer-jobs/" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-important-charts-markets-finance-chartbook-2017-6" >PRESENTING: The most important charts in the world from the brightest minds on Wall Street</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6Here are the hottest industries for teens to find jobs this summerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 12:56:12 -0400Akin Oyedele
<p>Summer is here.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For teenagers, the time off from school could be an opportunity to&nbsp;earn some cash.</p>
<p>The share of teenagers that work in the summer has fallen over the years. <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2017/06/21/thinking-about-summer-jobs/">Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> show that the share of those aged 16 to 19 who worked or looked for a job in July peaked in 1978, at 71.8%.</p>
<p>It's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/an-economic-rite-of-passage-for-teenagers-is-almost-dead-2015-6">more complicated</a> than just wanting more free time:&nbsp;teens are studying for longer, some choose unpaid internships, and non-white teenagers are less likely to land summer jobs overall.&nbsp;</p>
<p>About 43% of teens were active in the job market last July.&nbsp;Most of them worked in the leisure and hospitality industry, working gigs such as&nbsp;waiting tables and housekeeping.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This chart&nbsp;from the <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/#SummerChart1">BLS</a> shows the top industries that employed teens in&nbsp;summer 2016.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/594abaa6114ab61d008b47df-1201/6-21-17-teen-jobs-cotd.png" alt="6 21 17 teen jobs COTD" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2017/06/21/thinking-about-summer-jobs/" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-important-charts-markets-finance-chartbook-2017-6" >PRESENTING: The most important charts in the world from the brightest minds on Wall Street</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/summer-jobs-industries-teens-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-quickly-disappearing-from-america-postal-workers-sewing-machine-operators-2017-69 jobs that are quickly disappearing in the UShttp://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-quickly-disappearing-from-america-postal-workers-sewing-machine-operators-2017-6
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 09:50:25 -0400Arielle Berger, Rachel Gillett and Andy Kiersz
<p>Thanks in part to email, Facebook, and Twitter, mail carriers may be all but obsolete in the not-so-distant future.</p>
<p>By 2024, <a href="http://www.bls.gov/">the Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> projects a 28% decline in postal service jobs, about 136,000 fewer positions than 2014.</p>
<p>But mail carriers aren't the only ones whose jobs are disappearing. Technology and market shifts have affected a variety of fields.</p>
<p>Based on <a href="http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm">the BLS's occupational outlook data</a>, here are nine jobs that could be on their way out.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-quickly-disappearing-from-america-postal-workers-sewing-machine-operators-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-average-salary-for-americans-at-every-age-2017-4The average salary for Americans at every agehttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-average-salary-for-americans-at-every-age-2017-4
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 13:26:00 -0400Amelia Josephson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/59026da62f6ae4080e8b4cf0-1118/crowd.jpg" alt="crowd" data-mce-source="James Cridland/Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810/in/photolist-6UyjZU-nP3Rob-5pCtii-6qFvbn-6qLJkL-cF9pBh-Wd54U-bCDeQi-JSoWr-9SJLio-bpH9BC-4YHDDh-ndrQnx-8v8Bmg-7Jknc2-73XJtd-beBtLK-5oaePC-9dYDDD-5cLuvP-bSNnKp-beBrb2-dBvZA8-nULmFB-hG6i5P-8RFNTi-TySvYP-81jhAU-dgeVoF-BQjUZ-4cdz51-hDs4dL-qbgBz8-c9hyWf-a3CCzr-nUCZwy-mwKFdB-8RLpiu-54dLFX-cxSgD9-a6q16c-4JtEDh-w8xxR-ak1koZ-9XNPnw-4NZuH6-hZF26c-b7R8LX-ea36Gz-5TXvNe"></p><p>How much money is enough? Some people answer this question by comparing themselves to others in their age group.</p>
<p>No one likes to feel like they’re at the back of the pack. To help you get a sense of where you stand, let’s take a closer look at the average salary by age for full-time workers in the U.S.&nbsp;<span id="more-61325"></span></p>
<p><strong>Check out <a href="https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-calculator">retirement calculator</a>.</strong></p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 16-19</strong></h2>
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks Americans’ earnings by several demographic factors, including age. According to BLS data, the average salary of 16- to-19-year-olds is $420&nbsp;per week, $21,840 per year. That’s the average across all races, genders and education levels.</p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 20-24</strong></h2>
<p>As you might expect, earnings increase&nbsp;beginning in one’s 20s. The average salary of 20-to-24-year-olds is $528 per week, $27,456 per year. Many Americans start out their careers in their 20s and don’t earn as much as they will once they reach their 30s.</p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 25-34</strong></h2>
<p>For Americans age 25-34, the mean salary is $758 per week, $39,416 per year. That’s a big jump from the average salary for 20-24-year-olds. Conventional wisdom holds that one’s 20s and 30s are the times when one gets raises. It’s common for earnings to plateau beginning in one’s 40s.</p>
<p><strong>Related Article: <a href="https://smartasset.com/insights/what-is-the-income-gap">What Is the Income Gap</a>?</strong></p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 35-44</strong></h2>
<p>The average salary of 35-to-44-year olds is $950 per week, $49,400 per year. However, that’s a number that conceals considerable variation by gender. For example, male&nbsp;35-to-44-year-olds earn a mean salary of $1,019 per week while women in the same age bracket earn an average of $859 per week.</p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 45-54</strong></h2>
<p>The average salary of 45-to-54-year-olds is $962 per week, $50,024 per year. That’s the highest average salary of any of the age groups the BLS tracks. Again, the gender <a href="https://smartasset.com/insights/what-is-the-income-gap">income gap</a> is significant in this age group. Men between the ages of 45 and 54 earn an average of $1,102 per week while women in the same age bracket average $840 per week.</p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 55-64</strong></h2>
<p>The average salary for Americans age 55-64 is $954 per week, $49,608 per year. Earnings in this age bracket are slightly lower than in the 45-54 age bracket. There are also fewer total workers in this age bracket. According to the BLS, there are&nbsp;22,658,000 full-time workers in the 45-54 age bracket, and only&nbsp;18,544,000 full-time workers in the 55-64 age bracket.</p>
<h2><strong>The average salary: 65 and older</strong></h2>
<p>Americans aged 65 and older earn an average of $888 per week, $46,176 per year. This average is for full-time workers, so doesn’t take into account the many people in this age bracket who drop out of the workforce. There are&nbsp;4,114,000 full-time workers in the 65 and older bracket. Some workers over 65 may be in the workforce because they don’t have sufficient <a href="https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-savings-are-you-normal">retirement savings</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Related Article: <a href="https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-savings-are-you-normal">Average Retirement Savings: Are You Normal</a>?&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>Check out the chart below to see our break-down of the average salary by age.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/590249a67dea724c528b457b-800/smartasset-chart.jpg" alt="smartasset chart" data-mce-source="SmartAsset"></p>
<h2><strong>Bottom line</strong></h2>
<p>Many Americans are unemployed or under-employed – working part-time when they would prefer to be working full-time – so take these BLS stats on average salary with a grain of salt because they only apply to full-time wage- or salary-earners. Within each age bracket, earnings vary widely by gender, race and education level, too. Some people also get income from sources other than salary and wage earnings – sources like <a href="https://smartasset.com/investing/investment-calculator">investment income</a>.<strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-median-wage-map-2016-11" >Here's how much millennials are earning annually across the US</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-average-salary-for-americans-at-every-age-2017-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/garbage-can-trash-911-memorial-nyc-tokyo-london-2016-8">Why you won't find a garbage can near the 9/11 memorial</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-february-jobs-report-is-on-march-10-2017-3Here's why the February jobs report is coming out today, even though it's the middle of the monthhttp://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-february-jobs-report-is-on-march-10-2017-3
Fri, 10 Mar 2017 07:33:00 -0500Andy Kiersz
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58b8870ce46c1534008b4b99-1417/68578855500424110080h.jpg" alt="construction" data-mce-source="Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York/flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtaphotos/6857885550/"></p><p>The jobs report is a monthly ritual for anyone following markets or the US economy, as it contains some of the main data points measuring the health of the labor market in the world's largest economy.</p>
<p>The report almost always comes out on the first Friday of the month, but not this month: The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jobs-report-preview-february-2017-2017-3">February 2017 report</a> is scheduled to be released on March 10, a week later than might be expected.</p>
<p>It turns out that this is due to the way the jobs numbers are gathered and how the days of the week fell this year during a short month.&nbsp;Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Megan Dunn explained the scheduling rules to&nbsp;Business Insider (emphasis ours):</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"<span>Generally, the Employment Situation is scheduled for the third </span><span data-term="goog_1570703887"><span>Friday</span></span><span> after the reference period for the household and payroll surveys. This usually results in the release being scheduled for the first Friday of the month following the reference month. (In the case of the household survey, the reference period for a given month usually is the calendar week that includes the 12th of the month, and in the establishment (payroll) survey, the reference period is the pay period that includes the 12th of the month.) <strong>When the 12th is on a Sunday and there are 30 days or less in the month, the release date will wind up being the second Friday of the following month, as is the case with the release of February data this year.</strong>"</span></p>
<p><span>That is, the Bureau of Labor Statistics bases its job figures on the week or pay period that includes the 12th. It then takes a few weeks to sort through all the raw survey results and get the published job numbers. If the 12th falls on a Sunday, as it did last month, that makes the overall reference period later than it would be if it fell on another day: The February reference week was the 12th through the 18th, while if the 12th fell on, say, a&nbsp;Thursday as it did in January, the reference week would be the 8th through the 14th.</span></p>
<p><span>Combine the late survey week with a month that had&nbsp;just 28 days, and the third Friday after the reference week — jobs day — happens to be the second Friday of the next month.</span></p>
<p><span>Dunn also noted that there are other things that can affect the timing of the jobs report, such as federal holidays like Christmas and the 4th of July.</span></p>
<p><span>So, we'll be back on the 10th with our <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jobs-report-preview-february-2017-2017-3">usual full coverage of the jobs report</a>.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-public-opinion-on-major-issues-institutions-2017-2" >How Americans really feel about their country on 33 key issues, and how that has changed over 40 years</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-february-jobs-report-is-on-march-10-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-down-alibaba-annual-meeting-watch-ceo-jack-ma-michael-jackson-impression-2017-9">Watch billionaire CEO Jack Ma dance to Michael Jackson in full costume</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-spending-food-bls-2017-2A close look at Americans' food budget shows an obvious place to save moneyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/americans-spending-food-bls-2017-2
Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:00:00 -0500Alex Morrell and Skye Gould
<p>The average American household spends <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-americans-spend-most-of-their-money-2017-1">most of its money</a> — 62% of an average $56,000 in annual expenditures — on just three things: housing, transportation, and food.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you're trying to cut costs and save money, food might be the easiest place to start.</p>
<p><span></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-first-step-to-save-money-on-food-2015-10">Food</a>&nbsp;accounts for 12.5%, or just over $7,000 in the average budget, of annual expenditures,&nbsp;<span>according to the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxfaqs.htm#q3">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>.&nbsp;It's an area where you can make some pretty&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-save-you-money-on-food-2016-12">immediate changes</a>, whereas&nbsp;<span>housing and car expenses tend to be longer-term commitments with less flexibility.</span></p>
<p>One key to keeping meal costs low is cooking at home. But the BLS data seems to indicate Americans are not very fond of cooking meals on their own — or at the very least, that they don't spend much money on doing so.&nbsp;</p>
<p><img style="color: #000000;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58a22cba9037f78e4e61eef1-1200-864/bi-graphics_how much americans spend on food-1.png" alt="BI Graphics How much Americans spend on food " border="0">Eating out, which is typically far more expensive than cooking at home, accounts for 43% of the annual food expenditures for the average family — an obvious area to save some cash. This category, according to the BLS, includes "fast food, take-out, delivery, concession stands, buffet and cafeteria, at full-service restaurants, and at vending machines and mobile vendors."&nbsp;</p>
<p>The biggest spending category for food eaten at home is "miscellaneous," which requires some further explanation, as it doesn't actually suggest much home "cooking." This category appears to be comprised mostly of premade meals and snacks (think Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisines, as well as Doritos and almonds), though <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cex/csxgloss.htm#chars">it also includes</a>: "<span>condiments and seasonings, such as olives, pickles, relishes, sauces and gravies, baking needs and other specified condiments; and other canned and packaged prepared foods, such as salads, desserts, baby foods, and vitamin supplements."</span></p>
<p>If you throw in the next-largest spending category — nonalcoholic beverages, which presumably aren't involved in meal preparation — Americans' three largest food spending categories, roughly 60% of their annual food budget, involve little to no actual cooking.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now, since this data refers to raw spending and doesn't indicate anything about the number of meals this spending creates, we can't really draw firm conclusions about how often Americans are cooking versus eating prepared food. Since prepared meals cost more, they may account for more of the food budget even while occurring less frequently.</p>
<p>Either way, if you want to stretch your dollars a little further, reducing restaurant visits and increasing your home-cooked meals is a surefire way to start.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-americans-spend-most-of-their-money-2017-1" >Americans spend most of their money on only 3 things</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-spending-food-bls-2017-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-dalio-turned-biggest-professional-failure-into-success-investment-stock-economics-finance-2017-9">How Ray Dalio turned one of his biggest professional failures into a lesson for success</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/federal-minimum-lost-purchasing-power-50-years-ago-2017-1The federal minimum wage hit its peak purchasing power nearly 50 years agohttp://www.businessinsider.com/federal-minimum-lost-purchasing-power-50-years-ago-2017-1
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 01:17:00 -0500Daniel B. Kline
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58755d6bee14b6aa5c8b7270-1936/minimum wage californmill.jpg" alt="Minimum Wage California" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Nick Ut" data-mce-caption="In this Tuesday, July 21, 2015 file photo, workers hold a rally in Los Angeles in support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' proposed minimum wage ordinance." /></p><p></p>
<p>The minimum wage has been a highly debated topic in recent years, with workers in industries including fast food and retail pushing for the standard to be raised to $15 an hour.</p>
<p>Currently, the federal minimum wage is less than half that amount, at $7.25 an hour, where it has been since 2009.</p>
<p>Of course, 29 states, plus the District of Columbia and a number of cities and counties, mandate that higher hourly amounts be paid.</p>
<p>Still, while many parts of the country have higher minimum wages, a recent&nbsp;<a href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/08/18/5-issues-and-the-2016-campaign/#clinton-and-trump-supporters-at-odds-over-15-minimum-wage">Pew Research Center survey</a>&nbsp;found that 52% of Americans favored increasing the federal minimum to $15 an hour. It's an issue that's divided across party lines: Only 21% of Donald Trump supporters favor the idea, while 82% of Hillary Clinton backers support it. It's also a topic that breaks down differently across racial lines, with "large majorities of blacks and Hispanics" supporting it and 54% of whites opposing it, according to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/" target="_blank">Pew</a>.</p>
<p>Under a Trump administration and a Republican-led Congress, it seems unlikely that any significant increases to the minimum wage will happen on a federal level any time soon. Perhaps that would be different if elected officials in both parties considered the following four facts.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/53f25ca369bedd406a1c5fb5-2400" alt="mcdonalds" data-mce-source="Justin Sullivan/Getty Images" /></p>
<h2>It's not just young people who earn it</h2>
<p>While there is a perception that minimum wage jobs go to teenagers working at fast food restaurants, that's only a piece of the picture, according to&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>. Only 45% of the 2.6 million hourly workers who made federal minimum wage (or less) in 2016 were between 16 and 24 years old. Another 23.3% were aged 25-34, meaning that 31.7% of all hourly workers making minimum wage or less were over 34.</p>
<h2>Minimum wage means less these days</h2>
<p>Adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage had its peak buying power in 1968, when it was worth $8.68 in 2016 dollars. "Since it was last raised in 2009, to the current $7.25&nbsp;per&nbsp;hour, the federal minimum has lost about 9.6% of its purchasing power to inflation," according to Pew.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/565e0b5e84307623008b68f3-2400" alt="fight for 15 minimum wage" data-mce-source="Joe Raedle/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Workers protest outside a McDonald's restaurant on November 10, 2015 in Miami, Florida. The protesters are demanding action from state legislators and presidential candidates to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour." /></p>
<h2>Some states are changing this</h2>
<p>Not only do 29 states plus the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages than the federal standard, but 12 automatically raise theirs based on a cost-of-living formula. States whose minimum wages exceed the federal limit require hourly wages of between $7.50 (in New Mexico) and $11.50 (in D.C.), according to the U.S. Department of Labor's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm">Wage and Hour Division.</a></p>
<p>"Together, these states include about 61% of the nation's working-age (16 and over) population," according to Pew's analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.</p>
<p>A number of cities also have higher minimum wages than even their states. These include San Francisco ($15 by 2018), Seattle ($15 by 2021), Chicago ($13 by 2019), and San Diego&nbsp;($11.50 by 2017), according to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/City-Minimum-Wage-Laws-Recent-Trends-Economic-Evidence.pdf" target="_blank">National Employment Law Project</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/552bd2d869bedd6258bd511f-2400" alt="minimum wage" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Noah Berger" data-mce-caption="Protesters calling for higher wages for fast-food workers stand outside a McDonald's restaurant in Oakland, California December 5, 2013. " /></p>
<h2>This industry has the most low-wage workers</h2>
<p>It will not surprise you to find out the restaurant and food service industry employs the most near-minimum-wage workers -- that is employees, who make more than the minimum wage in their state but less than $10.10 an hour. "The near-minimum-wage workers are young (just under half are&nbsp;30 or younger), mostly white (76%), and more likely to be female (54%) than male (46%)," wrote Pew. "A majority (56%) have no more than a high-school education."</p>
<p>It's worth noting that restaurants, which employ 3.7 million of this type of worker, have some employees who are tipped. These figures do not factor that in, so it's possible that a number of these employees make more than near-minimum wage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That's likely not true for the 902,400 grocery store workers, 650,200 department/discount employees, or 633,100 construction workers who qualify as near-minimum-wage workers. In addition, there are 562,900 people making less than $10.10 an hour working in elementary and secondary schools.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/federal-minimum-lost-purchasing-power-50-years-ago-2017-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-irma-latest-update-projected-path-track-florida-2017-9">Hurricane Irma is hammering Florida and headed to Georgia — here are the latest updates on the massive storm</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/october-2016-unemployment-rate-state-map-2016-11Here's every US state's October unemployment ratehttp://www.businessinsider.com/october-2016-unemployment-rate-state-map-2016-11
Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:56:00 -0500Andy Kiersz
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday the October unemployment rate for each of the fifty states and DC.</p>
<p>According to the Bureau,&nbsp;seven&nbsp;states had a statistically significant drop in the unemployment rate between September and October, two states had&nbsp;an increase, and the other 41 states and DC were more or less the same.</p>
<p>Unemployment rates ranged from a low of 2.8% in New Hampshire and South Dakota to a high of 6.8% in Alaska.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5833424bba6eb61b008b58e4-1200/october-unemployment-rate-map.png" alt="october unemployment rate map" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-explain-america-2016-9" >22 maps that explain America</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/october-2016-unemployment-rate-state-map-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-transformation-of-whole-foods-puts-entire-grocery-industry-on-notice-2017-8">Amazon's transformation of Whole Foods puts the entire grocery industry on notice</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-presidents-battle-unemployment-rate-2016-10Here's how presidents over the years have dealt with the unemployment ratehttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-presidents-battle-unemployment-rate-2016-10
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 23:17:00 -0400James Dennin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57f571b057540cad028b5158-2400/rtr23vjd.jpg" alt="Unemployment Jobs Work Truck" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Robert Galbraith"></p><p></p>
<p>On the campaign trail, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has often suggested that the unemployment <a href="https://mic.com/articles/156130/unemployment-rises-to-5-here-s-what-that-really-means">rate</a> is much higher than everyone says it is. </p>
<p>"When you hear 4.9% and 5% unemployment," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ-QceqDll4">he said</a><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-the-unemployment-rate-hoax"> </a>during a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-the-unemployment-rate-hoax">victory speech</a>in the New Hampshire <span data-editor-comment-id="9db0fe59-d1e3-4dd5-8dd6-5f9b03669e46">primary</span>, "the number's probably 28%, 29%, as high as 35% — in fact, I even heard recently 42%."</p>
<p>Those numbers are all miles away from <a href="https://mic.com/articles/156130/unemployment-rises-to-5-here-s-what-that-really-means">the latest reading</a> of the U.S. unemployment rate — 5% — which the Bureau of Labor Statistics released <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">on Oct. 7</a>.</p>
<p>It is true there are other ways to measure unemployment that will yield a higher figure. For instance, If you factor in part-time workers who would rather be working full-time and others who have simply given up looking, for instance, the number climbs to <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm">9.7%</a>.</p>
<p>But that doesn't explain the astronomical figures Trump is citing: As Adam Davidson pointed out in the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-the-unemployment-rate-hoax">New Yorker</a>, f<span data-editor-comment-id="5b1c6354-f0d2-47b0-9753-486e40c63293">or Trump's unemployment figures to be accurate would essentially require a conspiracy involving </span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trump-and-the-truth-the-unemployment-rate-hoax">thousands of bureaucrats</a><span data-editor-comment-id="5b1c6354-f0d2-47b0-9753-486e40c63293"> who help prepare the data, as well as all the journalists, politicians, economists and bankers who scour the data each month. </span></p>
<p>If you're unfamiliar, <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unemployment.asp">unemployment</a> is a measure of the number of people willing and able to work but are unable to find a job.</p>
<p><span>In recent years, unemployment spiked, in great part because of jobs lost </span><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/why-does-unemployment-tend-rise-during-recession.asp">during the recent recession</a><span>: That's one reason President Barack Obama has seen a high average unemployment rate during his tenure.</span></p>
<p><span><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
September unemployment rate<br>1980: 7.5%<br>1984: 7.3%<br>1988: 5.4%<br>1992: 7.6%<br>1996: 5.2%<br>2000: 3.9%<br>2004: 5.4%<br>2008: 6.1%<br>2012: 7.8%<br>2016: 5.0% </p>— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/784372470992216064">October 7, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span>A<span data-editor-comment-id="000ab8b6-174f-4e7d-a0f5-04c94b5d3ada">s you</span><span> can see in the below chart, however, the current 5% is low on a </span><span data-editor-comment-id="21f648f9-523c-49df-8893-2e4ea27702f1">histo</span><span>rical basis — th</span><span data-editor-comment-id="12735f4f-02d6-4ca9-b013-41e1c993b4a2">o</span><span>ugh it is not the lowes</span><span data-editor-comment-id="0bfd4eed-e205-442d-a6ba-5bf1da691af7">t rate </span><span>ever.</span></span></p>
<p>Between <span data-editor-comment-id="279bea75-5690-4ec7-9e61-9111bac9882e">October 2006 and May 2007, </span><span data-editor-comment-id="279bea75-5690-4ec7-9e61-9111bac9882e">unemployment</span><span data-editor-comment-id="279bea75-5690-4ec7-9e61-9111bac9882e"> hovered lower than it stands today — falling </span><a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE">as low as 4.4%</a><span data-editor-comment-id="279bea75-5690-4ec7-9e61-9111bac9882e"> </span>— until the <span data-editor-comment-id="1dabbc5e-7470-44ae-83fa-333d3f8739f6">recession began to take hold in late 2007 and early 2008.</span> </p>
<p>Under former President Bill Clinton, unemployment was even lower, landing at <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-democratic-convention-2016-live-bill-clinton-s-legacy-1469576026-htmlstory.html">4.2%</a> in January 2001 when he left office. </p>
<p>To be fair, of course, the president's policies are not the only factors influencing the unemployment rate at any given moment in time: Other matters, including recessions, <a href="http://www.economicshelp.org/macroeconomics/unemployment/causes/">technology, immigration and regulation</a>, have an effect on employment as well — and presidents can <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2013/01/04/surprise-obama-is-creating-more-new-jobs-than-george-w-bush">inherit</a> problems they did not <span data-editor-comment-id="80b3c448-d215-43c7-af44-a298556a2d62">cause</span>.</p>
<p><span>Given that the presidential race will end in mere weeks, it's also relevant to look at historical unemployment rates right before elections.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-presidents-battle-unemployment-rate-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-labor-force-projections-2016-10These 9 charts could define the future of America's workforcehttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-labor-force-projections-2016-10
Tue, 04 Oct 2016 12:37:03 -0400Akin Oyedele
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57f3d60d9bd97820008b48c6-1778/rtskbty.jpg" alt="baby american flag" data-mce-source="Reuters/Carlo Allegri" data-mce-caption="A woman holds a baby as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump works the ropeline at a campaign rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., July 29, 2016." /></p><p>America's labor force in 2060 could be smaller, older, and more racially diverse than it is now.</p>
<p>In September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Mitra Toossi published <a href="http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2016/a-look-at-the-future-of-the-us-labor-force-to-2060/home.htm">charts with projections</a> for the workforce over the next three decades.</p>
<p>To compute their forecast, the BLS made projections from 2014 to 2024, and kept the labor force participation rate constant through 2060. Any changes after 2024 in the labor force, then, mainly reflect shifts in the makeup of the population.</p>
<p>Here are the charts:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/manhattan-condo-sales-fall-in-q3-2016-10" >Manhattan's housing market is slowing down</a></strong></p>
<h3>Resident population growth is declining.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57f3b0c357540ca9018b46a9-400-300/resident-population-growth-is-declining.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>Immigrants could be a bigger part of the population and the workforce.</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57f3b15e57540ca9018b46ad-400-300/immigrants-could-be-a-bigger-part-of-the-population-and-the-workforce.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>There are two ways the US population grows: natural increase, or the net difference between births and deaths, and immigration. The BLS projects that immigration will be an increasingly important part of population growth in the coming decades. The share of immigrants adding to population growth is forecast to match the natural increase in 2022, and overtake it after then.</p>
<p>Also, the BLS projects that the number of people that will be added to the population because of an influx of immigrants will be nearly double the rate of natural increase.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>The labor force is forecast to grow by 29 million people from 2015 to 2060 ...</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57f3b1cc57540cb2018b469d-400-300/the-labor-force-is-forecast-to-grow-by-29-million-people-from-2015-to-2060-.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>The civilian noninstitutional population refers to the share of US residents 16 years and older who are not inmates of institutions like prisons or mental facilities and are not in active military duty.</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-labor-force-projections-2016-10#/#-but-the-growth-rates-are-set-to-be-much-slower-than-earlier-decades-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9Shopping at Walmart is getting a lot cheaper (WMT)http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9
Sat, 01 Oct 2016 10:01:00 -0400Hayley Peterson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/579a1b2388e4a71b008bb506-686/us-consumer-price-gains-slow-underlying-inflation-supported.jpg" alt="The fresh produce section is seen at a Walmart Supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="A Walmart Supercenter in Rogers" /></p><p>Grocery prices are in a free-fall.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Food prices&nbsp;have declined&nbsp;for nine straight months in the US, marking&nbsp;one of the longest stretches of&nbsp;food deflation&nbsp;in 50 years.</p>
<p>We went to Walmart to find out just how far prices&nbsp;have fallen at&nbsp;<span>the No. 1 grocery store in the US.</span></p>
<p>We compared the prices of 34 items at a store in Richmond, Virginia on Tuesday to the prices of the same items at the same store&nbsp;in December 2015.</p>
<p><strong>The result?&nbsp;The basket of groceries is now 10% cheaper than it was nine months ago.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>The basket total in September was&nbsp;$104.17. In December 2015, the same items cost&nbsp;$114.86.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Some of the&nbsp;products' package sizes have changed over the last year, so we calculated those differences into the final price.</span></p>
<p><span>We found the biggest price drops among the&nbsp;eggs (down 67% to 82 cents for one dozen eggs); goat cheese (down 56% to $1.99 for 4&nbsp;ounces);&nbsp;<span>pineapples (down 41% to $1.75 per fruit);&nbsp;<span>almonds (down 37% to $5.13 for 12 ounces);&nbsp;<span>peanut butter (down 28% to $3.14 for 40 ounces); and&nbsp;</span></span></span>extra virgin olive oil (down 23% to $2.98 for 17 fluid ounces).&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>The prices of ground beef and chicken also fell considerably, dropping 8% and 11% respectively.</span></p>
<p><span>Some items cost considerably more than in December 2015, such as 2-liter bottles of Coca-Cola (up to $1.48 from $1 per bottle in December) and canola oil (up to $2.88 for a 48-fluid-ounce bottle from $1.98 in December).&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>It's possible Walmart&nbsp;increased prices on those items to&nbsp;offset the&nbsp;plunging&nbsp;costs of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Since August 2015, prices of those items have&nbsp;dropped 6.5%, representing the biggest drop of any food group in that period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</span></p>
<p><span>However, Walmart denied that it prices products according to trends between food categories.</span></p>
<p><span>Here's a full list of Walmart's&nbsp;prices, adjusted for varying package sizes:</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/57eaea89077dcc0f208b776a-1062/aldi vs walmart - sheet6-3.jpg" alt="Walmart price check" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Hayley Peterson" /></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lidls-expansion-plans-in-the-us-2016-9" >A German grocery chain that crippled its rivals in the UK is about to invade the US</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-colicchio-reveals-okay-complain-restaurants-crafted-hospitality-food-meal-top-chef-2017-9">Why you shouldn't be afraid to complain about a bad meal in a restaurant, according to Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-why-its-ok-to-go-into-debt-2016-9These are the reasons why it's ok to go into debthttp://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-why-its-ok-to-go-into-debt-2016-9
Fri, 30 Sep 2016 19:03:00 -0400Todd Campbell
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57eed8d8d887241c008b4b4d-2343/gettyimages-547068000.jpg" alt="Federal debt clock" data-mce-source="Alex Wong/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="The clock that shows the figure of current national debt of the United States of America is seen during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee July 13, 2016 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC." /></p><p></p>
<p>Most debt is costly and potentially ruinous to your financial future (looking at you, credit cards!), but there are times when going into debt allows you to attain financial goals that you'd otherwise be unable to reach. For example, taking on debt to pay for college, buy a home, or lower the interest rate on existing debt can make a lot of financial sense.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our Foolish writers take a closer look at all three situations.</p>
<h2>Financing an education&nbsp;</h2>
<p><span><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFEBCapital/info.aspx" target="_blank">Todd Campbell</a></span><span>:&nbsp;</span>According to the College Board, it can cost $24,000 to attend a "moderate" state school and $48,000 to attend a moderate private school.</p>
<p>Some students families' will be able to chip in toward educational expenses, such as tuition, fees, and room and board, but a lot of college's financial burden still rests on the student, and that often makes it necessary to take out student loans.&nbsp;</p>
<p>According to&nbsp;<span>Experian</span>, seven out of 10 graduates in 2014 entered the working world saddled with an average student loan burden of $28,950. That's undeniably a big and worrisome number, but college remains a solid investment, despite its high cost. &nbsp;</p>
<p>According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, a person with a bachelor's degree earns a median 67% more per week than someone with a high school diploma.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The income advantage provided by post-secondary education makes student loans one of the few forms of debt that can pay off for the borrower over time. Additionally, interest on Federal student loans is relatively low, and often, that interest can be deducted on your taxes.</p>
<p>Student loans are among the most flexible forms of debt, too. Payments can be renegotiated based on your income, or they can be temporarily halted during a financial emergency, such as a job loss. There are even some scenarios that allow student loans to be forgiven, such as working in certain public-service occupations.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57d92137077dcc67208b496a-1300/hbs-harvard-business-school-graduates-international.jpg" alt="hbs harvard business school graduates international" data-mce-source="REUTERS / Adam Hunger" /></p>
<h2>Debt can be OK when you want to buy a home</h2>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSelena/info.aspx"><span>Selena Maranjian</span></a>: One of the best reasons you might get in debt is in order to buy a home. After all, the recent&nbsp;median sale price for a U.S. home was $244,100 -- and not many of us have that kind of cash available. Securing a mortgage has long been necessary for most people to be able to buy a roof over their heads.</p>
<p>It's not a simple matter, though. The more you learn about mortgages, the more you can save -- spending less on interest and perhaps even being able to buy a bigger or better home.</p>
<p>For starters, know that the better your credit score, the better the interest rates you'll be offered -- and, thus, the less interest you'll have to pay over the long run. The folks at MyFICO.com recently pointed&nbsp;out that a top credit score of between 760 and 850 would get you an average interest rate of 3.11% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan -- while a much worse score, between 620 and 639, would get you 4.70%.</p>
<p>With a $160,000 loan for a $200,000 home, that works out to respective monthly payments of $684 vs. $830 and total interest paid of $86,274 vs. $138,701 -- quite a difference! Look into your credit score before house-hunting and spend some time improving it, if need be.</p>
<p>The kind of mortgage you get matters, too. If you can swing the higher payments of a 15-year loan, you'll pay less in interest and will own your home sooner. If not, maybe get a 30-year loan with no prepayment penalty, and aim to make some extra payments if you're able.</p>
<p>If you know you won't be in the home long, an adjustable-rate mortgage can get you a lower interest rate. If you may stay for decades, a fixed rate can be smarter, especially in our current low-interest rate environment.</p>
<p>Go ahead and get in debt with a mortgage, but be financially smart about it.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/57a1f86cce38f235008b4693-1300/homeowners-new-house.jpg" alt="homeowners new house" data-mce-source="Shutterstock" /></p>
<h2>Replacing bad debt with good (for good)</h2>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx"><span>Dan Caplinger</span></a>: One of the best reasons to borrow against new sources of credit is to consolidate other loans and get more favorable terms. For instance, if you have a lot of high-interest debt in the form of outstanding balances on credit cards, then one option you might have is to take out a home equity loan to pay off the cards.</p>
<p>There's a downside involved in that putting your home up as collateral introduces new risk, but the much lower interest rates you can usually get compensate for that risk. Another option involves taking advantage of credit card introductory offers that offer 0% interest for a limited time.</p>
<p>However, there's a caveat with debt consolidation: It only works if you have the discipline not to get yourself back into trouble with high-interest debt. Too often, people consolidate credit card balances into a single loan, only to run their card balances back up again.</p>
<p>If you don't have the will power to avoid getting yourself into even worse debt trouble, then consolidation isn't a good idea. But for those who can cut up their cards and pretend that they don't exist, the interest savings makes using new debt at low interest rates to pay off higher-rate debt a smart move to consider.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-why-its-ok-to-go-into-debt-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/major-changes-apple-ios-iphone-11-2017-6">Here are all the major changes coming to your iPhone September 19</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9Shopping at Walmart is getting a lot cheaper (WMT)http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 09:24:00 -0400Hayley Peterson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/579a1b2388e4a71b008bb506-686/us-consumer-price-gains-slow-underlying-inflation-supported.jpg" alt="The fresh produce section is seen at a Walmart Supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="A Walmart Supercenter in Rogers" /></p><p>Grocery prices are in a free-fall.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Food prices&nbsp;have declined&nbsp;for nine straight months in the US, marking&nbsp;one of the longest stretches of&nbsp;food deflation&nbsp;in 50 years.</p>
<p>We went to Walmart to find out just how far prices&nbsp;have fallen at&nbsp;<span>the No. 1 grocery store in the US.</span></p>
<p>We compared the prices of 34 items at a store in Richmond, Virginia on Tuesday to the prices of the same items at the same store&nbsp;in December 2015.</p>
<p><strong>The result?&nbsp;The basket of groceries is now 10% cheaper than it was nine months ago.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>The basket total in September was&nbsp;$104.17. In December 2015, the same items cost&nbsp;$114.86.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Some of the&nbsp;products' package sizes have changed over the last year, so we calculated those differences into the final price.</span></p>
<p><span>We found the biggest price drops among the&nbsp;eggs (down 67% to 82 cents for one dozen eggs); goat cheese (down 56% to $1.99 for 4&nbsp;ounces);&nbsp;<span>pineapples (down 41% to $1.75 per fruit);&nbsp;<span>almonds (down 37% to $5.13 for 12 ounces);&nbsp;<span>peanut butter (down 28% to $3.14 for 40 ounces); and&nbsp;</span></span></span>extra virgin olive oil (down 23% to $2.98 for 17 fluid ounces).&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>The prices of ground beef and chicken also fell considerably, dropping 8% and 11% respectively.</span></p>
<p><span>Some items cost considerably more than in December 2015, such as 2-liter bottles of Coca-Cola (up to $1.48 from $1 per bottle in December) and canola oil (up to $2.88 for a 48-fluid-ounce bottle from $1.98 in December).&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>It's possible Walmart&nbsp;increased prices on those items to&nbsp;offset the&nbsp;plunging&nbsp;costs of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Since August 2015, prices of those items have&nbsp;dropped 6.5%, representing the biggest drop of any food group in that period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</span></p>
<p><span>However, Walmart denied that it prices products according to trends between food categories.</span></p>
<p><span>Here's a full list of Walmart's&nbsp;prices, adjusted for varying package sizes:</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/57eaea89077dcc0f208b776a-1062/aldi vs walmart - sheet6-3.jpg" alt="Walmart price check" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Hayley Peterson" /></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lidls-expansion-plans-in-the-us-2016-9" >A German grocery chain that crippled its rivals in the UK is about to invade the US</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-grocery-prices-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-airplanes-fly-giant-banner-ads-dangerous-job-2017-9">How airplanes fly those giant banner ads — it's more dangerous than you think</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/disproportionately-popular-job-state-map-2016-4The most disproportionately popular job in every statehttp://www.businessinsider.com/disproportionately-popular-job-state-map-2016-4
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:15:00 -0400Andy Kiersz
<p>Some jobs are disproportionately concentrated in certain states.</p>
<p>Fashion designers flock to New York, Texas has an outsize share of petroleum engineers, and Floridians are much more likely to be motorboat operators than are other Americans.</p>
<p><span>We made a map that shows the most overrepresented job in each state, among jobs with at least 1,000 people employed, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recently released <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/home.htm">May 2015 "Occupational Employment Statistics."</a> Each state has far more of these jobs per capita than the nation as a whole.</span></p>
<p><span>We'll discuss the methodology later. First check out the map:</span></p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/570c036452bcd066018bbff8-1200-900/occupation-location-quotients-map-2015.png" alt="occupation location quotients map 2015" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm" /></p>
<p>These are not the most common jobs in these states; that map would be very boring because the most common job in 40 states is "retail salesperson," the most common job in the country.</p>
<p>This map instead shows jobs that are disproportionately concentrated in each state. For example, in New York there are about 7,440 fashion designers out of 8,984,890 employed people. So fashion designers account for about 8.3 out of every 10,000 jobs in New York.</p>
<p>In the US as a whole, there are about 19,040 fashion designers out of 137,896,660 employed people. So about 1.4 of every 10,000 jobs in America are in fashion design.</p>
<p>The Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the ratio of these two rates the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/help/def/lq.htm">location quotient</a> for a job in a particular area. The location quotient of fashion designers in New York is 8.3 divided by 1.4, which equals about 6.0. That is, there are about six times as many fashion designers per 10,000 total employed people in New York as in the US as a whole.</p>
<p>The map shows the job in each state with the highest location quotient, among jobs with at least 1,000 people employed. These jobs exist in each state at much higher rates than in the country as a whole.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/county-population-change-map-2016-3" >These are the fastest growing and shrinking counties in America</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/disproportionately-popular-job-state-map-2016-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gdp-us-states-compared-other-countries-2015-7">Animated map renames states for countries with similar GDPs</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-21-best-jobs-of-the-future-2015-12The 21 best jobs of the futurehttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-21-best-jobs-of-the-future-2015-12
Mon, 29 Aug 2016 06:35:00 -0400Andy Kiersz
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/52a5ede46da811ed48312ce8-1226-920/developers-laptop-tech.jpg" alt="developers laptop tech" data-mce-source="Flickr/TechCrunch" data-link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/techcrunch/10513785065/" /></p><p>Healthcare and tech are among the fastest-growing sectors of the US economy, and several well-paying jobs in those industries are primed to expand&nbsp;dramatically in the next decade.</p>
<p>The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its biennial <a href="http://www.bls.gov/emp/">projections for job growth across hundreds of occupations</a> between 2014 and 2024.</p>
<p>We took those projections and combined them with BLS <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm">estimates of the 2014 median annual earnings</a>&nbsp;of those jobs &mdash;&nbsp;<span>using the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean">geometric mean</a><span> of the two numbers &mdash;&nbsp;</span>to come up with a ranking of the best jobs of the next decade. To focus on good, high-paying jobs, we restricted our list to those with&nbsp;salaries higher than the 2014 median annual wage of $35,540.</p>
<p>Read on to learn about the&nbsp;best jobs of the future, including<span> the typical level of education required</span>&nbsp;and what people do on a daily basis, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.onetonline.org/">O*NET descriptions of the jobs</a>.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-unhealthy-jobs-in-america-2015-11" >The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health</a></strong></p>
<h3>21. Elementary school teachers, except special education</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/565384f7c2814434008b4dc4-400-300/21-elementary-school-teachers-except-special-education.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Projected new positions by 2024</strong>: 78,300</p>
<p><strong>Median annual earnings&nbsp;in 2014</strong>: $54,120</p>
<p><strong>What they do</strong>: Teach young children basic skills in schools</p>
<p><strong>Typical educational requirements</strong>: Bachelor's degree</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>20. Nurse practitioners</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5666fd8fc28144ba018b84ca-400-300/20-nurse-practitioners.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Projected new positions by 2024</strong><span>: 44,700</span></p>
<p><strong><strong>Median annual earnings&nbsp;in 2014</strong></strong>: $95,350</p>
<p><strong>What they do</strong>: Treat and diagnose patients' illnesses</p>
<p><strong>Typical educational requirements</strong>: Master's degree</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>19. Financial managers</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5528142769bedd495640432e-400-300/19-financial-managers.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Projected new positions by 2024</strong><span>: 37,700</span></p>
<p><strong><strong><strong>Median annual earnings&nbsp;in 2014</strong></strong></strong>: $115,320</p>
<p><strong>What they do</strong>:&nbsp;Direct financial activities at organizations</p>
<p><strong>Typical educational requirements</strong>: Bachelor's degree</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-21-best-jobs-of-the-future-2015-12#/#18-electricians-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8Here's every state's July unemployment ratehttp://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8
Sun, 21 Aug 2016 12:33:00 -0400Andy Kiersz
<p>The US Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm">monthly report on unemployment rates for the 50 states and DC</a> in July.</p>
<p>According to the report, seven states had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance">statistically significantly</a> higher unemployment rates in July than in June, three states had lower rates, and&nbsp;the other 40 states and DC were statistically unchanged.</p>
<p>South Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate in the country at just 2.8%, while Alaska had the highest at 6.7%.</p>
<p>The map shows each state's July unemployment rate. Darker red states had higher rates.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57b749ecdb5ce954008b7d19-1200/july-state-unemployment-rates.png" alt="july state unemployment rates" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-bankers-make-2016-8" >So you want to be a Wall Street banker? Here's how much you'll get paid</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/electoral-college-math-donald-trump-clinton-battleground-state-polling-2016-8">This animated map shows the most probable path to a Trump victory</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8Here's every state's July unemployment ratehttp://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 14:09:00 -0400Andy Kiersz
<p>The US Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm">monthly report on unemployment rates for the 50 states and DC</a> in July.</p>
<p>According to the report, seven states had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance">statistically significantly</a> higher unemployment rates in July than in June, three states had lower rates, and&nbsp;the other 40 states and DC were statistically unchanged.</p>
<p>South Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate in the country at just 2.8%, while Alaska had the highest at 6.7%.</p>
<p>The map shows each state's July unemployment rate. Darker red states had higher rates.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57b749ecdb5ce954008b7d19-1200/july-state-unemployment-rates.png" alt="july state unemployment rates" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm" /></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-bankers-make-2016-8" >So you want to be a Wall Street banker? Here's how much you'll get paid</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/july-state-unemployment-rate-map-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/electoral-college-math-donald-trump-clinton-battleground-state-polling-2016-8">This animated map shows the most probable path to a Trump victory</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-higher-pay-chart-2016-8Here are 10 jobs that pay way more than they used tohttp://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-higher-pay-chart-2016-8
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 12:56:00 -0400Andy Kiersz and Rachel Gillett
<p>While a lot of jobs have lost ground in terms of wages in the last several years, some actually pay better than they did ten years ago.</p>
<p>We recently released a list of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-where-people-make-far-more-now-than-they-would-have-ten-years-ago">22 jobs that saw big increases in real average annual wages</a> between 2005 and 2015, according to estimates from the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment Statistics</a> program.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Here are the 10&nbsp;jobs with the biggest increases&nbsp;in wages over that decade (adjusted for inflation) from our ranking, along with their average annual wages from 2005 and 2015, in 2015 dollars:</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57a1fe81db5ce99d168b45ed-1200/biggest-increase-chart.png" alt="biggest increase chart" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm" /></p><p><strong>CHECK OUT THE WHOLE LIST HERE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-where-people-make-far-more-now-than-they-would-have-ten-years-ago" >22 jobs where people make far more now than they would have 10 years ago</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>AND JOBS THAT PAY WAY LESS THAN THEY USED TO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-where-people-make-far-less-now-than-they-would-have-ten-years-ago-2016-7" >22 jobs where people make far less now than they would have ten years ago</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-higher-pay-chart-2016-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-lower-pay-chart-2016-7Here are 10 jobs that pay way less than they used tohttp://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-lower-pay-chart-2016-7
Sat, 30 Jul 2016 11:11:36 -0400Andy Kiersz and Rachel Gillett
<p>Being a chiropractor doesn't pay what it used to.</p>
<p>We recently released a list of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-where-people-make-far-more-now-than-they-would-have-ten-years-ago">22 jobs that saw big declines in real average annual wages between 2005 and 2015</a>, based on estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm">Occupational Employment Statistics program</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Here are the 10&nbsp;jobs with the biggest drops in wages over that decade (adjusted for inflation) from our ranking, along with their average annual wages from 2005 and 2015, in 2015 dollars:</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/579cc06a4321f10d038bc0b6-1200/biggest-drop-chart.png" alt="biggest drop chart" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor Statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm" /></p><p><strong>CHECK OUT THE WHOLE LIST HERE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-where-people-make-far-less-now-than-they-would-have-ten-years-ago-2016-7" >22 jobs where people make far less now than they would have ten years ago</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-with-lower-pay-chart-2016-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-voss-fbi-hostage-negotiator-salary-tips-2016-5">EX-FBI HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: How to negotiate a higher salary</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/june-jobs-report-may-revisions-2016-7The June jobs report is the 'most important' of the year — and it's all about Mayhttp://www.businessinsider.com/june-jobs-report-may-revisions-2016-7
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:50:00 -0400Andy Kiersz
<p>It's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-report-preview-june-2016-2016-7">almost jobs day in America</a>, and it's going to be a big one.</p>
<p><span>Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategist Athanasios Vamvakidis called the upcoming June jobs&nbsp;report <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/baml-june-jobs-report-is-the-most-important-of-the-year-2016-7">"the most important NFP of the year"</a><span>&nbsp;in a note circulated to clients. Vamvakidis' rationale is that, after the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-jobs-report-may-2016-2016-6">dismal May jobs report</a> in which only 38,000 jobs were added, far below expectations of 160,000, the June report will shed light on whether that was an aberration or the start of an ominous trend.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>However, that May number might not turn out to have been as terrible as we all thought. The jobs report, in addition to&nbsp;the headline-making new estimates for job creation in the most recent month, includes revisions to the prior two months' non-farm payroll numbers. The non-farm payroll figures are based on a survey of business establishments, and as the Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers more information, they can refine the original estimates to get a better picture of what was actually going on in the labor market in previous months.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Those revisions can be quite substantial, and can move in either direction, making what initially looked like a good jobs reports much worse, or terrible reports much better. To illustrate this, here are the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnaicsrev.htm">revisions made in the month after each&nbsp;initial estimate</a>&nbsp;going back to the start of last year. The revisions can frequently be pretty big:</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/577eafd94321f11b008b6a84-1200/nfp-revisions-fun.png" alt="nfp revisions fun" data-mce-source="Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bureau of Labor statistics" data-link="http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnaicsrev.htm" /></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>In addition to the regular uncertainty in the jobs numbers as illustrated in the chart, there's another reason to expect good news tomorrow: The May report had a weird anomaly, as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-strike-jobs-report-2016-6">about 35,000 Verizon workers were on strike</a> during the week that the BLS was running the employment survey. Putting those jobs back in alone should make things look somewhat better.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Of course, it's also possible that things could swing the other way, and we could see a revision down in the May numbers, making a bad jobs report into an utterly terrible one.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Either way, one of the big numbers we'll be looking for in the new jobs report&nbsp;will be all about the last report.</span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-illustrate-americas-global-dominance-2016-7" >16 charts that show why America is the most amazing country in the world</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/june-jobs-report-may-revisions-2016-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-dalio-bridgewater-everyone-should-have-gold-principles-2017-9">RAY DALIO: There's one asset every portfolio must have</a></p>